OSL Seminar: Nature Bites Back: Nonhuman Resistance in the Cultural Imagination 

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Dates: 3 and 17 February; 3, 17 and 31 March 2026 (13:15-16:00) + paper jam during EASLCE conference (14-17 April).
Venue: Utrecht University
Organizers: Dr Kári Driscoll (UU) and Dr Kate Huber (TiU)
Credits: 5 ECs (assignment instructions will follow closer to the date of the event).  NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.
Open to: PhDs and ReMA students; OSL members have first access.

Registration will open 17 November 2025, VIA THIS LINK.

What happens when nature turns against us? This course examines literary and cultural imaginaries of nonhuman resistance—animal uprisings, ecological revenge, viral retaliation—as sites of political, aesthetic, and ethical inquiry. From myths of Gaia’s retribution to pandemic-era memes declaring that “nature is healing,” we explore how narratives of environmental vengeance reflect and reproduce deeply rooted ideas of sin, guilt, and punishment. How do such imaginaries negotiate the boundaries between human and nonhuman agency? And what cultural work do they perform in the face of climate crisis and mass extinction? Drawing on fiction, film, and theory, we situate these motifs in a comparative and historical frame, engaging perspectives from posthumanism, deep ecology, decolonial and Indigenous thought. In the process, we critically examine Western apocalyptic imaginaries and explore alternative worldviews that challenge anthropocentric and eschatological assumptions about the end of the world.

NB: The course will end with a ‘paper jam’ session during the EASLCE Conference (Utrecht, 14-17 April). More details — including the exact date of the paper jam session — will be shared before the start of the course.